Today I was hooking up an inverter, no trouble disconnecting red lead but when I disconnect black the beeping starts and hasn’t stopped. I don’t think low battery is an issues. Clues please. John
Been a long time since this discussion.Hello @starcraft and @pharlap66 , just in case you do not have the full instructions for your Top Ray 1230 solar controller, here is the proper instructions for you to download. Please note that unless you have wires connected to the "Load" terminals, the display will NOT show discharge in amps, only amps IN and Voltage. I have provided wiring diagrams for this easy connection if you also want to know what current is going OUT of battery. But only simple if you do not have a Drifter panel, in which case, you should monitor the Drifter panel to see what is happening. By the time the Top Ray starts beeping at 10.8 volts, your battery is stuffed and probably beyond recovery to recharge and hold a reasonable capacity. 11.80 volts is the last stop before battery goes into serious decline, so the Low Voltage Disconnect at 10.8 volts is far too low IMO. For your info @Gonemissing .
https://www.caravansplus.com.au/pdf/solar_reg.pdf
Been a long time since this discussion.
Regarding your comment about 10.8v belong to low. I understand and agree.
I had the buzzer come on again the other night after a bit of extra use (it’s only ever in the middle of the night!) but I’m sure the voltage was about 12.2V. No where near 10.8V. This battery is now about 8 months old and kept charged daily as we travel.
Any thoughts on how to retrieve and set the topray voltage alarm? 11.8v or thereabouts would be good.
Ok I thought that might be so.
Thanks Mike
Regards Ron
Correct as @mikerezny said about LVD and LVR being NON ajustable. But that is probably not the main problem. Something is wrong, either a current leakage somewhere, or a charging issue. @Gonemissing covered a lot of the reasons the alarm is sounding. From what I can remember, the LVR was 12.00 volts plus or minus 0.4 volts. That means once battery voltage has dropped below LVD, (even momentarily), it will be in alarm until voltage has reached more than 12.4 volts. Put battery on "smart" charger if you can and leave it connected for at least 48 hours to get the battery right up to FULL capacity , not just at maintain stage. You might also think back about your usage and maybe you are pushing the envelope too close to the edge. Use less power or have more charging ability when off grid, or extra battery. If you put a heavy load on battery when voltage gets down, it does not take much to tip it below LVD!!
Thanks for that. Just to clarify we have a dc-dc charger (and a second battery for a 40l fridge) installed but what i meant was that we spend most of our time in parks on 240v so the battery gets a full charge daily. Usually well over 13.5v each morning.
We were off grid for a couple of nights and we only have the one 8 month old 110AH AGM battery at present.
First night battery ran down from over 13.5v (after being on solar all day ) to 12.2V after just a very quick shower, two led lights, couple of iPhones, small water pumping and 12v tv for no more than 20 secs (that saw it drop 0.5v really quickly so i turned it off). Buzzer sounded later that night at around 12v. I thought we’d have got more out of the battery than that. The drop after the tv was an extra worry.
Next night we were more frugal. We used the Park showers and skipped the iPhone charges and really just used internal lights and it stayed at 13v all night. suggesting no leak.
Clearly the pump and phones used a bit. I’ve had the van checked a couple of times and we couldn’t find a leak. Maybe I’m expecting more from the battery than it can give but its 110Ah and i though my load was pretty minimal.
I really appreciate your comments and will go thru those docs carefully. I’ll keep monitoring and minimise nightly use.
Thanks much for your replies. You've given me much food for thought.Sorry @Gonemissing , I was not aware that you were pretty well organised with dc-dc charger and solar charging during day and 240 volt charging at night. But I would not be happy with the power provided by that AGM battery. The TPS 1320 has a max charge voltage of 14.4 volts (plus or minus ?) and I am sure you would have the correct settings on your DC to DC charger. Once again I am not privy to your power distribution system be it a Setec or the later BMpro. That should be able to charge up battery to full overnight - 10 hours at 10A comes to 100ah less 10% for charging losses!! . The Setec has max voltage setting of only 14.0 volts which is short for an AGM, but even with the smaller unit ST20, I would have thought that the charge rate of 10 amps all night would be more than enough. I would love to put my clamp meter on charge and discharge lines as well as measure voltage at various points to isolate the problem. If the charging system is functioning properly, it only leaves the battery - not charging properly or not capable of holding a charge - not going through the "absorption" phase long enough?? Faulty??
How do you charge your second battery for the 40l fridge? Is the second battery connected in parallel with the main van battery?? Are they charged together? One of them could have a failed cell which would certainly cause problems overall. Might be worth looking at running on one battery by itself and see how the load is carried. Good luck and please keep us informed.